How I got through the baby blues

By Anna Coogan © Herald.ie 2008
Author Claire Allan's struggle to bond with her first baby, and the emptiness and bleakness of feeling she wasn't a good mother, undermined her confidence so much that she didn't think she would ever be able to have a second child.
Yet her dream of having a sibling for five-year-old Joseph came true last March when she gave birth to daughter Cara. Her arrival was the toughest decision writer Claire has ever had to make -- what if she once again had to do battle with the post-natal depression which had wrecked her life following the birth of her first child?
In an uplifting account of the arrival of her new baby, Claire offers hope to all young mums who have suffered from the condition. Her new novel, Jumping in Puddles, which is out this month, shows that there really is light at the end of the tunnel for any new mum enduring the darkness of depression after having a baby.
"I was on a high for days after my daughter Cara was born last March. There were no feelings of failure, of drudgery, of having made a mistake. Yes, there were tough days and there were days when I wondered if things were going wrong again. That was one of the toughest aspects -- wondering if a bad day was something more when in fact it was just a bad day.
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